Music Banter - View Single Post - Aural Fixation- Gavin B.'s Music Blog

Gavin B. · 08-14-2009, 03:32 PM

Song of the Day

Cover of The Velvet Underground (1969)

Beginning to See the Light- Velvet Underground

The song is from the Velvet Underground's third album entitled The Velvet Underground (1969). VU is now a four person band with a minimalist, pop oriented, down tempo sound. Their third album didn't chart in the Billboard Top 200 in 1969. But strangely enough, 16 years later, after a long period of being out of issue The Velvet Underground popped into the Billboard Top 200 at #197, one week in 1985, shortly after Verve reissued it in the cd format.

I've always loved Lou Reed's manic singing on the song and could never figure if he was being tongue-in-cheek with his over-the-top vocal intensity. This song is a good example of one of VU's more garage rock sounding moments.

Annotation to YouTube video:
The YouTube video has a rare and interesting 1968 photo of the band that I've never seen. It's noteable because Warhol's "superstars" (ie..actors, actresses and models) were in the picture. Superstars weren't photographed that often in the same picutre with the band members of VU.

Superstars in photo: Warhol (in dark glasses), to the left of Warhol is Joe Dellasandro, Edie Sedgewick (in purple dress), Gerard Malanga (to Sedgewick's right) and Billy Name (hiding behind Malenga) and Valerie Solanis (woman in front on floor beneath Lou Reed). Solanis became most notable for her assassination attempt on Andy Warhol on June 3 1968. This photo must have been shot very close to the day of the shooting.

Solanis' story is told in the film I Shot Andy Warhol and Lili Taylor won several film festival awards Best Actress awards for her portrayl of Valerie. Lili's portrayal should have gotten an Oscar nomination but the film was too indie, and Taylor's portrait of Solanis was too gritty, unglamorous and real-to-life for Hollywood to appreciate.

Director Mary Harron painfully researched her biopic of Valerie and it's the most historically authentic of all of the films about the Factory. Jared Harris is also the best portrayer of Warhol I've seen in the six different films with an Andy Warhol character that I've seen. There have been 19 different films with a Warhol character in them, but the vast majority of them are not in issue.

08-14-2009, 03:32 PM	#52 (permalink)
Gavin B. Model Worker Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1,248	Song of the Day Cover of The Velvet Underground (1969) Beginning to See the Light- Velvet Underground The song is from the Velvet Underground's third album entitled The Velvet Underground (1969). VU is now a four person band with a minimalist, pop oriented, down tempo sound. Their third album didn't chart in the Billboard Top 200 in 1969. But strangely enough, 16 years later, after a long period of being out of issue The Velvet Underground popped into the Billboard Top 200 at #197, one week in 1985, shortly after Verve reissued it in the cd format. I've always loved Lou Reed's manic singing on the song and could never figure if he was being tongue-in-cheek with his over-the-top vocal intensity. This song is a good example of one of VU's more garage rock sounding moments. Annotation to YouTube video: The YouTube video has a rare and interesting 1968 photo of the band that I've never seen. It's noteable because Warhol's "superstars" (ie..actors, actresses and models) were in the picture. Superstars weren't photographed that often in the same picutre with the band members of VU. Superstars in photo: Warhol (in dark glasses), to the left of Warhol is Joe Dellasandro, Edie Sedgewick (in purple dress), Gerard Malanga (to Sedgewick's right) and Billy Name (hiding behind Malenga) and Valerie Solanis (woman in front on floor beneath Lou Reed). Solanis became most notable for her assassination attempt on Andy Warhol on June 3 1968. This photo must have been shot very close to the day of the shooting. Solanis' story is told in the film I Shot Andy Warhol and Lili Taylor won several film festival awards Best Actress awards for her portrayl of Valerie. Lili's portrayal should have gotten an Oscar nomination but the film was too indie, and Taylor's portrait of Solanis was too gritty, unglamorous and real-to-life for Hollywood to appreciate. Director Mary Harron painfully researched her biopic of Valerie and it's the most historically authentic of all of the films about the Factory. Jared Harris is also the best portrayer of Warhol I've seen in the six different films with an Andy Warhol character that I've seen. There have been 19 different films with a Warhol character in them, but the vast majority of them are not in issue.